Rebuilding Northeast Ohio's neighborhoods (with photo gallery)

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DAN SHINGLER

The Collinwood neighborhood east of downtown Cleveland has not always been known as a desirable neighborhood. But today, its Arts District along Waterloo Road is one of the city' best places to hear live music, grab a meal or see some of the city's best new art galleries.

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DAN SHINGLER

A $5.5 million streetscape project completed in Collinwood by the city, along with private investments by Cleveland entrepreneurs like former ad man Alan Glazen, have boosted development over the past couple of years. That's resulted in new businesses opening along Waterloo — from art studios, workshops and galleries to new restaurants and clubs like Packy Malley's, Citizen Pie and The Millard Fillmore Presidential Library

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DAN SHINGLER

In 2000, Cindy Barber (pictured) and Mark Leddy opened the Beachland Ballroom in a former Croatian social club in the Collinwood neighborhood. Since then, it's become one of the anchors of the neighborhood's revival.

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DAN SHINGLER

Phillip Nabors and his wife, Margaret, opened the Mustard Seed Market ( their third) in 2015 in Akron's Highland Square neighborhood. The full-service grocery and an attached café have already come to serve as a de facto town hall for everyone from neighborhood advocates to Akron city officials.

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DAN SHINGLER

Highland Square has a problem many other neighborhoods would envy; there's not enough cheap retail space, said Anita Marron (left) and Katie Carver Reed (right) of the Highland Square Neighborhood Association.

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DAN SHINGLER

Ohio Brewing Company's brewpub in Highland Square offers a full bar and food.

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DAN SHINGLER

Akron's North Hill neighborhood boasts some great restaurants. That includes the place just about everyone says is a must-try: the Nepali Kitchen on Cuyahoga Falls Avenue. There, the heat is measured on a scale of one to five, there's always a Bollywood flick on the television, and longtime locals share the small dining room with new immigrants.

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DAN SHINGLER

Elizabeth Walters, community outreach coordinator at the International Institute of Akron, is charged with making sure the Bhutanese refugees settling in the North Hill neighborhood have jobs, housing and are off government support in the allotted time.

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OHIO CITY INC.

With the West Side Market, the breweries and a vacancy rate in the market district that has dropped from 34% to 2% since 2013, it has no shortage of amenities or people that want to live near them.

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OHIO CITY INC.

Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood has evolved into a dining and entertainment destination.

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DAN SHINGLER

The West Side Market and Great Lakes Brewery, along with restaurants like Heck's, have anchored the Ohio City neighborhood for decades.

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DAN SHINGLER

Ashley Shaw, economic development and property manager for Ohio City Inc., said, “There's been a critical mass that's been reached and you're starting to see some real development taking place."

Downtowns are nice — if you’re a tourist.

But most city residents live in neighborhoods, and Akron and Cleveland have some great ones. Some are up and coming after years of blight and neglect, others are holding onto the same hip and trendy status they seem to have had forever. Most of the neighborhoods in Akron and Cleveland face a common challenge. They’re all part of cities that have lost substantial portions of their populations and are confronted with old, often blighted properties. While their solutions to these problems vary, they do have one thing in common: All of the neighborhoods that are making their way back have a core of committed residents working not just to improve their own homes and lives, but to better their entire communities. Crain’s explored a few of the region’s neighborhoods and talked with those charged with shaping their future. Here’s what we found.

Highland Square, Akron

For almost as long as anyone can remember, the Highland Square neighborhood, which hugs West Market Street just northwest of downtown, has been Akron’s cool place to go.

“In the ‘50s, the muscle cars and the greasers used to cruise Highland Square,” said Phillip Nabors, a longtime resident and businessman. Recently, the neighborhood has attracted enough new bars, restaurants and other businesses to attract new residents. Nabors is a big reason for that. He’s been a resident of Highland Square for almost 50 years — and today he’s also probably the neighborhood’s most important business owner and landlord. Nabors and his wife, Margaret, opened Highland Square’s Mustard Seed Market, their third, in 2015. Before that, he developed a strip of real estate along West Market Street into the neighborhood’s prime retail district. In the process, he has given the neighborhood a full-service grocery and an attached café that has already come to serve as a de facto town hall for everyone from neighborhood advocates to Akron city officials. “They (the Nabors) took a lot of risk and have thrown themselves completely into making it a successful venture — and the whole community has benefitted,” said Akron City Councilman Rich Swirsky, who represents the neighborhood. “The Mustard Seed is kind of like everyone’s front porch or community living room.” Nabors also brought in Wally Waffle — a locally owned restaurant, along with other retail shops to the south side of West Market Street — where he considers himself the neighborhood “curator.” “Highland Square is now, I think, a model neighborhood, because of the density you find at the corner of West Market and Portage Path today,” said Kyle Kutuchief, Akron program director for the Knight Foundation. In fact, today Highland Square has a problem many other neighborhoods would envy — there’s not enough cheap retail space, said Katie Carver Reed and Anita Marron of the Highland Square Neighborhood Association. “The challenge for this neighborhood is to get a good eclectic mix of stores and things like that,” Marron said. “We do pretty well, but there’s not enough space.” Still, many residents say they wouldn’t live anywhere other than “Akron’s best neighborhood.” They’re happy to show it off, too — during Highland Square’s PorchRokr festival in August — when more than 100 bands will be playing on porches around the neighborhood. Last year, more than 7,000 people came to the event.

Collinwood, Cleveland

The Collinwood neighborhood east of downtown Cleveland has not always been known as a desirable neighborhood. But today, its Arts District along Waterloo Road, is one of the city’s best places to hear live music, grab a meal or see some of the city’s best new art galleries.

A $5.5 million streetscape project completed by the city, along with private investments by Cleveland entrepreneurs like former ad man Alan Glazen, have boosted development over the past couple of years. That’s resulted in new businesses opening along Waterloo — from art studios, workshops and galleries to new restaurants and clubs like Packy Malley’s, Citizen Pie and The Millard Fillmore Presidential Library (not what it sounds like) opening over the last year. If you go to Waterloo Road on the first Friday evening of any month, you’ll likely find hundreds of young people and art lovers prowling the street on one of the district’s popular “Walk All Over Waterloo” art walks. It wasn’t that way back in 2000, when partners Cindy Barber and Mark Leddy opened the Beachland Ballroom in a former Croatian social club. “My husband would go to the gas station at 5 in the morning and he would get solicited by prostitutes and have crack dealers in his face,” Barber said of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Today, things have improved, but the neighborhood remains eclectic, maybe even a bit edgy — and that’s fine by Barber. “The whole idea of this neighborhood is to center it around original ideas and make sure the people who are coming here can afford the space that they’re in and potentially buy that space,” Barber said. “We don’t want to be landlord-driven.” Amy Callahan is executive director of Waterloo Arts, a nonprofit that helps build the neighborhood’s arts community and runs a gallery on Waterloo Road. She said she also has seen the neighborhood improve steadily since she took her present post in 2008. “Oh my god, it’s changed tremendously. So many of these shops and galleries weren’t open. … It didn’t look anything like this a couple of years ago,” Callahan said. There’s more to do, though — and more to come. For instance, Barber said a Slovenian social hall, just down the street from the Beachland Ballroom, has been purchased by an investor who hopes to turn it into another music venue. Those who have come to Waterloo, so far, said they’re glad they did. That includes John Farina, who opened the Maria Neil Art Project gallery on Waterloo in 2013. “It’s always challenging to revitalize a neighborhood that hit the kind of places that this neighborhood had, but there are a lot of really committed and dedicated people who are doing great things here,” Farina said.

North Hill, Akron

Here’s a neighborhood that only had to look to its past to find its future.

It has had its ups and downs over the years to be sure — and there was a time when much of the community was known mostly for its prostitutes, rough bars and dangerous streets. But today, North Hill seems to be on its way back, and many people think it’s because of the Bhutanese. Tens of thousands or ethnic Bhutanese have been in refugee camps, mostly in Nepal. The United States is one of the nation’s that has agreed to take some of them in and resettle them — and North Hill is one of the neighborhoods to which the U.S. State Department sends them. “They have 90 days to become self-sufficient,” said Elizabeth Walters, community outreach coordinator at the International Institute of Akron. She knows, because her organization is charged with making sure they have jobs, housing and are off government support in the allotted time. They Bhutanese are not only succeeding, they’re reshaping their neighborhood, along with some Hispanics and a few other ethnic populations. At an estimated 4,000 strong, the Bhutanese are the largest of the new groups. They’re also often small business people, and today North Hill boasts some great restaurants. That includes the place just about everyone says is a must-try: the Nepali Kitchen on Cuyahoga Falls Avenue. There, the heat is measured on a scale of one to five, there’s always a Bollywood flick on the television, and longtime locals share the small dining room with new immigrants.

Ohio City, Cleveland

You’ve have to be living in a cave not to know that Ohio City is one of Cleveland’s coolest neighborhoods. And even then, the cave would probably have to be far out of town. It’s been a mecca for urban pioneers, hipsters and just about anyone who loves good food and beer.

The West Side Market and Great Lakes Brewery, along with restaurants like Heck’s, have anchored the neighborhood for decades. But, recently, they’ve gotten some help as the community has built a critical mass of both residents and amenities, said Ashley Shaw, economic development and property manager for Ohio City Inc. The neighborhood has an enviable problem. With the market, the brewery and a vacancy rate in the market district that has dropped from 34% to 2% since 2013, it has no shortage of amenities or people that want to live near them. What it needs now, Shaw said, is more housing — and it’s getting it. “We did a study in 2013 that said we could support, immediately, 1,800 units of new housing — we have about 900 under development right now,” Shaw said. She points to places like the new Mariner’s Watch apartments near West 31st Street, the Edge 32 apartments going in at West 32nd and Detroit, and the granddaddy of them all, Snavely Group’s 240-unit development at the key intersection of West 25th and Detroit. “There’s been a critical mass that’s been reached and you’re starting to see some real development taking place,” Shaw said.

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